


The Cowboy and The Red Peril

by YumYumPM



Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015), The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 22:51:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4805153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumYumPM/pseuds/YumYumPM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you've seen the new movie, this is my idea of how it meshes into the series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cowboy and The Red Peril

He waded through the somber throng of people until he found his partner. He knew it wouldn't be hard to find him with his golden blond hair and indeed he did. Illya Kuryakin was standing alone on the darkened area of the balcony, a cigarette in his hand.

"I thought you gave up smoking," Napoleon Solo asked, as he moved up beside him.

Illya, of course, took a puff of the cigarette while he continued to look down on the lights below and ignore him.

Napoleon sighed and remembered the days, forty years ago, when they first met in Berlin. He'd been working for the CIA and Illya for the KGB. Illya had seemed much taller in those days and it was years later the he'd learned that Illya wore lifts so as not to give Napoleon an advantage.

Even then he'd recognized a worthy opponent, and they'd each tried to kill the other. Until their handlers ordered them to work together. While Napoleon was a solo operator, he kept running into Illya at every turn that it seemed easier for them to work together then separately.

Both of them would have lost their lives at least one on that mission if the other had not rescued them. A precedence that continued on once they were requited as agents for U.N.C.L.E.

Illya was a conundrum. He sometimes appeared transparent, other times he was a mystery. Napoleon knew his past, that his father was sent to the gulag when he was young and his mother was no better than she should be as Napoleon's mother used to say. In Napoleon's opinion it was the reason for Illya's temper which he had worked hard to control and over the years succeeded.

But back then Illya had tried to act detached, but their little colleague, Gabby, somehow managed to get underneath his skin. It had not really surprised Napoleon when Illya asked her to marry him.

Napoleon had been sent to Survival School about that time and when he returned he learned that Gabby had left Illya standing at the altar. Waverly had immediately sent Illya off to England to work under the auspice of Harry Belden, the new head of U.N.C.L.E.'s English branch. After that Illya was sent to the, what was becoming, infamous Survival School and when he returned to New York they never mentioned Illya's near miss at matrimony. It must have meant something for him because he wore his ring as a reminder to never trust women.

While he was away, Illya had, more or less, reinvented himself. Napoleon had been told that the bulked up Russian had lost weight following Gabby's defection and when he returned to New York, he was wearing his hair was longer, more of a non-cut much like the new singing groups out of Britain.

They worked together, and sometimes apart, for the next five years. Then Napoleon grew antsy and one day he turned in his resignation. His aunt had died and left him all her worldly good, one of which was a computer company. It didn't have the excitement of working for U.N.C.L.E. or jewel thievery, for that matter, but it did bring in a lot of money.

Fifteen years later U.N.C.L.E. came calling again and even though Alexander Waverly was no longer alive, Napoleon was pulled in again. It was then that he found out that Illya was now in actuality Vanya. It didn't really surprise him, because even when they first met Illya had a way with knowing what looked good on a woman.

"You needn't have come, Cowboy," Illya said, his Russian accent back in full force.

Napoleon moved close, shoulder to shoulder, to the man who was his friend. "And let the Red Peril go through this alone?"

Illya gave one of his rare smiles and nodded his understanding.

Their lives had come full circle as they were once again in East Berlin to attend the funeral of Gabby Teller.


End file.
